Saturday, April 16, 2011

A Hispanic police officer has been arrested a second time in a child molestation case

The Oklahoma City Hispanic police officer accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy has been arrested again in what police said was a sting operation after tips led authorities to the runaway teen in Utah. Police said officers used a Taser while making the arrest. Police Sgt. Maurice Martinez was arrested in a traffic stop, police Capt. Patrick Stewart said. Martinez was pulled over as he was driving to a meeting that, unbeknown to him, had been set up by investigators. Police accuse Martinez of buying the boy a bus ticket to Utah and arranging for him to stay with people Martinez knew. Martinez has not been charged, but Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said that he anticipates filing numerous felony counts against Martinez. Prater said that the officer also could face federal charges. Prater said that police have information that Martinez made threats against people who are potential witnesses against him. Martinez resisted police as they tried to arrest him, and an officer used a Taser once to get him under control and restrain him, Stewart said. Martinez, 44, was first arrested Jan. 19, 2011 at his southeast Oklahoma City home after a teenage boy told confidants at church that Martinez sexually abused him. Police found hundreds of pornographic images of young males in states of undress, in a search of Martinez’s home, according to court documents. Police in the new arrest added two complaints of harboring a runaway juvenile, seven complaints of sexual abuse by a caretaker, two counts of forcible sodomy and one count of kidnapping to the sex abuse complaints from January 2011. Martinez is being held in the Oklahoma County jail, and bail has been denied by a judge. He is in a cell without other inmates, Oklahoma County sheriff’s spokesman Mark Myers said.

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